"The Color Purple" has been banned for a variety of reasons. Some of them include: homosexuality, sexual explicitness, offensive language, and "troubling ideas about race relations, man's relationship to God, African history, and human sexuality." As far as "The Color Purple" not being banned, it depends on the specific case as to why it was or was not allowed to be taught, read or left in a library. Usually some sort of committee will decide whether the literary merits of the book out weight the "negative" aspects of the book.

Though THE COLOR PURPLE was an enormous popular success, it inspired complaints that it dwelled too heavily on misogyny and male pathology within the African-American community while relatively discounting the effects of racism. The novel, which describes rituals of female circumcision and facial scarring and includes many other details of sex and violence, has also repeatedly been the target of censorship efforts in school libraries and other institutions. There is little controversy, however, about the book's emotional power: it is among the most affecting works of late-20th-century American literature.